Various imidazole derivatives have already been known. Japanese patent application first publication (KOKAI) No. 150590/83 discloses N,N'-substituted azolecarboxamide derivatives represented by the formula: ##STR2## wherein R.sup.1 denotes a hydrogen atom, methyl group or ethyl group, R.sup.2 denotes a lower alkyl group, X and Y each denote a carbon atom or a nitrogen atom, provided that when X is a nitrogen atom, Y is a nitrogen atom or a carbon atom, and when X is a carbon atom, Y is a nitrogen atom, as the imidazole compounds having the antibacterial and antigungal activities against such microorganisms pathogenic to plants.
With these known imidazole derivatives as disclosed in said Japanese patent application first publication (KOKAI) No. 150590/83, they can be expected to show their effects of controlling the plant diseases such as cucumber powdery mildew, cucumber scab and the like, when they are applied to the infested plants as a solution containing a high concentration of said imidazole derivatives in the range of 250 to 500 ppm. as a solution containing a lower concentration of said imidazole derivatives in the range of 100 to 10 ppm. to the infested plants, they can hardly exhibit their effects of controlling the plant diseases.
Further, these known imidazole derivatives have substantially no effect for disinfecting the seeds, so that they cannot be utilized as the agent for disinfecting the seeds for the purpose of controlling "bakanae" disease and brown spot of rice plants.
An object of this invention is to provide new imidazole derivatives which can be used as a substitute for the known imidazole derivatives, and which are applicable as more useful antibacterial and antigungal agent of agricultural and horticultural utilities and, particularly also as the agent for disinfecting the seeds to control "Bakanae? disease and brown spot of rice plants. Another objects of this invention is to provide an antibacterial and antifungal agents of agricultural and horticultural utilities, comprising said new imidazole derivatives as the active ingredient. Further object of this invention is to provide a process for the production of said imidazole derivatives.
We, the present inventors, have synthetized a lot of new imidazole derivatives which are similar to the known imidazole derivatives mentioned above, in respect of their basic chemical structure but which are bearing such substituent(s) different from the substituent(s) on said known imidazole derivatives. We have extensively studied these new compounds for their biological activities. As a result, we have found that new imidazole derivatives represented by the general formula (I) ##STR3## wherein R.sub.1 denotes a hydrogen atom or a lower alkyl group, R.sub.2 denotes a lower alkyl group, R.sub.3 denotes an alkenyl group, a cycloalkyl group, an alkoxy alkyl group or a higher alkyl group, R.sub.4 denotes a hydrogen atom or a lower alkyl group, and X denotes an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom, have excellent antibacterial and antifungal activities and that these compounds are more excellent and effective as the antibacterial and antifungal agent of the agricultural and horticultural utilities.